Eva-Marie Geigl, a paleontologist with the French National Research Center, has been studying the DNA of cats found at archeological sites.
Domestic cats, Felis catus, evolved from the wildcats of Southwest Asia and North Africa, F. sylvestris lybica.
By studying the maternal DNA, Geigl and her colleagues have traced two waves of migration involving the domestic cat.
The first occurred after cats were tamed in the Near East around 7000 BCE. As agriculture developed in the Fertile Crescent, cats proved useful at keeping mice out of the grain. The concept of barn cats spread from there.
The second wave occurred as cats moved out of Egypt during Classical Antiquity. As Herodotus observed, the Egyptians had a thing about cats that was almost creepy. By 500 BCE, ships loaded with grain were doing business all over the Mediterranean. Ship’s cats were in demand.
One cat with Egyptian genetic markers ended up at a Viking site in Germany. Even in ancient times, cats got around.
• Source: Geigl has a story about her work here:
https://communities.springernature.com/posts/of-cats-and-men
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